Digital Dictation (Voice Recorder) Buying Guide Leave a comment

Due to the lack of availability of the analogue or tape based dictation machines, many of our customers are now turning to us to advise them on the Digital Dictation range of products, they are finding that they are more cost effective than they originally may have thought and also that they now reach a much larger audience, no longer are they the primary use of Solicitors or Doctors but are just as likely to be used by students in lectures using the popular DSS dictation format or ODMS software at a much more cost effective price.

Unfortunately there are not many companies who will tell you what the benefits of Digital Dictation are; therefore we hope that brief guide will give you an overview of the benefits of moving to Digital Dictation over and above the tape based dictation systems used historically.

Below are a few of the benefits in using Digital Dictation Equipment:- 

• Digital Quality voice recording
• Digital portables are lightweight, modern looking
• Longer lasting batteries
• Much larger recording capacity
• High compression rates allowing playback through a number of formats DSS/WAV/MP3/MP4
• Straight forward editing and organising
• Ability to email dictation to any location from any location
• Dictations have a digital date stamp
• Reduced cost of consumables no need to purchase tapes
• 256bit encryption available

How to use your Digital Portable device.

When you begin to start to dictate into your Olympus Digital Portable or Philips SpeechMike, you will soon realise that it works in very much the same way as your analogue dictation machine however now you are able to upload your digital dictation to your computer.

Uploading is a very straight forward process, in many cases the Olympus and Philips Digital software has an automatic upload facility when the Digital device is connected via the USB lead, this will in most circumstances be included with the voice recorder, some devices come with a docking station (DS7000) which allows you to simply drop your device into it and allow for automatic download.

Dictations can now be sent to your respective secretary, this can be set up for automatic delivery via your network in which case the dictator needs to do nothing. E mail functionality is also available which allows dictations to be sent to a specific remote location selected from your email address book.

Once the dictation files have been uploaded the work for the dictator is finished and the secretary can take over and transcribe the file as they would do with a tape based dictation system.

Things to think about when considering buying a Digital Dictation Device

One thing worth considering before your purchase is how the Digital files will be transferred, most devices will come with a USB cable or a built in USB connection allowing you to connect to your PC , you may also wish to consider a docking station when purchasing, this will simplify and improve the upload process, SD cards can also be connected via a SD card reader.

There are 2 main benefits to using the docking station (Olympus CR15), the first one being the simplification of uploading the data however the main advantage is the most professional dictating systems can recharge the batteries whilst it is in the docking station.